


The Fires that Burn the Brightest

by Druidofthewild



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Smut, F/M, Forbidden Love, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:47:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24731059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Druidofthewild/pseuds/Druidofthewild
Summary: During the horde and alliance's war against each other, the Cenarion Circle brings night elf and tauren druids together. After getting over their initial distrust, Silawel and Kel are connected by a bond stronger than blood, but the world cannot allow the two to be at peace.
Relationships: Night Elf | Elves/Tauren (Warcraft)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	The Fires that Burn the Brightest

**Author's Note:**

> I started this work many, many years ago, and got round to rewriting and posting it now. It was inspired by an artwork I once saw of a tauren and night elf druid together. I love forbidden romances, and I also love druids. This will probably be a few chapters long, with rating subject to change. Depending on interest I'll do a sequel set during BFA times!
> 
> This takes place during Cataclysm.

The Cenarion Circle were supposed to put aside their differences and fight side-by-side, horde and alliance alike. They were the protectors of nature and her foes were their only enemy. Silawel, young for a night elf but old enough to have seen many wars, struggled with this concept. The Horde had burnt their forests and felled their trees. They had slaughtered her people and their allies when they should have been fighting Deathwing. The older druids told her to put aside her hatred. It would get her nowhere. And she tried.

The Cenarion Circle had called on her to perform a mission, a test of her abilities. Since Deathwing’s emergence, the elements had been in unrest. They tore apart the forests of Hyjal, burning the trees and the animals who inhabited them. She thought shamans could do more about this than her, but she was not one to refuse help to the Cenarion Circle. Their symbol was tattooed on her shoulders. She stood outside the lodge with the moonlight reflecting from her dark hair. The world seemed peaceful as if Deathwing, the Horde and the elementals were all far away. The pines swayed softly in the wind and she sighed contentedly. Hyjal was beautiful. Perhaps not as beautiful as her home in the Nightsong Woods, but a crown upon Kalimdor nonetheless. She remembered her mission and that the world was on the brink of destruction when a deep voice took her out of her reverie. She sighed, less than content this time, and turned to see a brown-furred tauren male. She inclined her head slightly to the other druid, suppressing the scowl that wanted to creep into her feline features. She assumed the tauren had also been told where to go and transformed wordlessly into a storm crow. 

She still remembered the first time she had flown. She had always envied the males who had been able to become druids as she grew up. When Nordrassil was corrupted the night elves had allowed women to train as druids and men as priests and warriors. She was glad that they had joined the alliance and become increasingly modern. She liked their new allies, the worgen, as well. She had always felt like the odd one out when visiting the cities of the humans and the dwarves, but the worgen and night elves got along well. 

The tauren beat his wings behind her, a brown eagle with horns. Suddenly he cawed, which she understood as a signal to halt. She glided round and saw the tauren swooping to the ground. Before landing his feathers melted away in fur, his talons and wings into mighty paws and his head into a sleek brown lion. She watched as he pounced upon a human man wearing purple robes. Assuming her own cat form, a panther, she landed on another human wearing the same robes. She recognised these people from Silithus where she had been stationed when the gates to the scarab kingdom had opened. The Twilight Cult revered the old gods, ancient beings who had cursed Azeroth with their presence. They also worshipped Deathwing. She should have figured that they had something to do with the elemental unrest in Hyjal. She found a note on the cultist’s body, transforming into her normal self to read it. 

Leyara was right. With the Druids of the Flame at our side, I think it will be easy to bring Ragnaros back. The so called ‘heroes’ stopped him once. It won’t happen again.  
“Bring Ragnaros back?” she scoffed. “These people are mad. And who are the ‘Druids of the Flame’? That sounds like something we should be worrying about.”  
“I don’t know who they are. But druids working with the Twilight Cult? I don’t understand,” replied the tauren.

“We should get to know each other if we are to work together. I’m Silawel Silverleaf.”

“Kel Wildmane.”

“Where are you from?”

“I lived in Orgrimmar. The new Warchief barely tolerates our kind there now. He thinks orcs are the masters of Azeroth.” He blew air from his nostrils like an angry bull. “I am a tauren and a druid. Not a good combination when surrounded by the Kor’kron. Garrosh slew our High Chieftain in a duel using deceitful methods.”

“Deceit? Here I thought orcs loved their honour. Yet there was no honour in burning my forest, cutting my trees and killing my friends.”

“Ashenvale?”

“Yes. I despise the Horde. Make of that what you will.”

*

Kel did not know what to make of his companion. He assumed that her comment about despising the Horde was about having to work alongside him. He would never utter it as long as he wanted to keep his head attached, but he wondered deep down if he also despised the Horde. When his people had joined he had been little more than a calf staring in wonder at the wolves the orcs rode and their long eared troll allies. Thrall had united the outcasts of Azeroth and brought them prosperity. Ever since he had given the mantle of Warchief to Garrosh, the Horde become a shadow of what he once knew. His loyalty lay with the druids far more than with the Horde.

He dropped to the ground in his cat form, slinking along in the shadows behind the panther. The energy in the air felt as if it were shifting and gathering in one spot. A female night elf with silver hair channelled fire towards it. The air started to burn until it took form.

“There’s your fire elemental,” said Kel, so quietly that he could barely hear himself.

“Hush,” said Silawel, her silver eyes casting an angry glance. She stared at the fire then turned abruptly to slink back past Kel.  
When they met fresh air far away from the smell of burning, Silawel turned to Kel. “It looks like they’re summoning fire elementals to burn the forest.”  
“Worked that one out for myself,” said the tauren.

She sighed and shook her feline head, raising her eyebrows in a way a real cat never would. “I thought the elementals were merely restless because they had been disturbed by Deathwing. I did not realise they were being summoned to destroy intentionally. And that night elf – perhaps she was one of these ‘Druids of the Flame’.”

She climbed further up the hill to gain a vantage point. The rocks jutted out to overlook the forest. A forest which was burning. Any druid would be made furious by seeing such devastation being committed against the Earthmother. They both snarled until a cold laugh caught their attention. 

Behind them stood a tall night elf female. She was certainly a druid, though not like them. Her armour was not made of dead trees and leather. Instead long fiery plumes flowed from bright shoulderpads and she wore a red robe. Kel wondered how the plumes did not burn her. Whoever she was, this druid was an enemy of the forest. Kel leant back on his hind legs ready to pounce. At that moment, vines sprouted from the ground, grasping his body firmly. He choked as he tried to bat at the vines with his paws, panicking as if drowning.  
*  
Silawel did not waste time watching the tauren struggle, as much as she might have liked to. The other night elf was clearly enjoying watching a member of the Cenarion Circle suffer, betrayed by the Earth he loved so much. She used the cruel elf’s distraction to her advantage, slinking back into the shadows. She launched herself at the other druid, relishing in her cry of distress and surprise. Silawel let out a feral screech as she closed her jaw around the druid’s throat. But the druid had changed and become something between a cat and a fire elemental. Silawel was caught by surprise. She had never seen such a thing. The fiery cat pushed her to the ground and she landed dangerously close to the edge of the drop. She felt a burning paw against her side and yowled in pain. It was her turn to be pinned down, screaming as she burnt where the fiery paws touched her. Silawel closed her silver eyes. At least the burning would stop when she-

A large brown cat knocked the Druid of the Flame aside. Kel wasted no time in tearing out her throat. She was forced into her true form as her dying gasps left her throat.

“What are you staring at?” she snapped at Kel, wincing from the pain where the fiery cat had touched her. “We need to leave. And get in some damn water, preferably.”

“Good to see you’re grateful that I saved your life,” snapped the tauren.

“I saved yours.”

“I was fine-”

“Oh, come on. You would be dead if it weren’t for me.”

The tauren huffed like an angry bull again but transformed into his bird form without another word. Silawel followed to a crystalline lake that soothed her burns.  
“That was one of those Druids of the Flame,” said Silawel as she floated in the water. “I had heard of druids defecting from Teldrassil, led by Majordomo Staghelm. Staghelm was not happy after Malfurion Stormrage awoke. He believed he should lead the druids, and the night elves in general.”

Before Kel replied, she saw a small deer hop out of the woods as flames rose in the distance. “Fancy rescuing little animals?” she asked.  
*  
After hours of rescuing animals that did not want to cooperate, Kel was exhausted. The sun was beginning to rise. While Silawel might be nocturnal, Kel was not, and preferred the warm caress of the sun to the moon’s light.

After Kel woke up he went to find the night elf, but she was nowhere to be found. He thanked the Earthmother for this mercy and went to report what he had found.

“A druid of the flame, you say?” asked the night elf commander. “Was it Leyara?”

“Leyara?”

“Yes, she was married to the son of Fandral Staghelm. Neither of them took his death well.” The night elf realised that Kel had not asked for Leyara’s history. “Aqua hair and a narrow face.”

“No, it was not her,” said Kel. He couldn’t really tell the night elves apart from one another, but he did not say that. Not that the other races of Azeroth could tell his kind apart from a farm animal. “This elf had blue hair.” Did she even have blue hair? Well, either way, she was dead. 

The commander frowned. “I see. Thank you for your report, Wildmane. Ishnu dal’dieb.”

Kel turned to leave the lodge, but had the misfortune to meet Silawel on the way out. She was rubbing her silver eyes. “How do you enjoy being up during the daylight. It’s so bright. I think I’m going to get a headache.”

Kel ignored her complaining and continued walking. He had seen some interesting plants in Hyjal which he would rather be studying than working with Silawel. 

“I have an idea, Kael,” she said.

“That is not my name.”

“I saw a portal to the Firelands. Perhaps we ought to have a look.”

“The Firelands? Is this not the realm of the shamans?”

“I think we might find a lead on these flame druids there. Besides, best to get fire elementals at the source, right?”

She shifted into a storm crow and took off with Kel following. He was in a better mood now that he had slept and the sun shone, but he wondered how long it would be until the night elf dampened it.  
Kel had not expected the heat that scorched his feathers the moment he entered the portal. A breath of the air burnt his throat. He landed next to Silawel, who was perched on a rock. He was about to ask her what she wanted to do next, but realised the bird was a different druid. Night elves… he let out a laugh that ended up being a caw.

He found Silawel in her true form looking at the charred land and dead plants. She picked up some soil and blew it away into the wind. Nothing would grow here. “It’s hot in here,” he said, feeling sweat matting his fur.

“It is when I’m here,” said Silawel.

Kel laughed until he saw something that looked suspiciously like a cat. He turned, but it was gone. Perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him and the flames were taunting him.  
A lash of flames struck from behind. Silawel struggled against the cat, holding her dagger to its throat. Kel was still covered in burns from his run-in with the druid yesterday. As vexing as the night elf might be, her screams drew pity. In this barren land Kel could find nothing to aid his spells. Normally he could have pulled roots from the ground, but the earth was unresponsive, like a dead body. Instead he would have to pounce upon this cat, burning himself further. But as he launched himself with a roar, the cat ran with what sounded like a laugh.

Kel stared at after it with confusion upon his feline face. “Strange. What was it – Silawel?”

The night elf lay motionless on the ground. Through the tears in her armour, Kel could see cuts and burns upon her purple skin. 

A wave of panic rose in the tauren, but he pushed it aside and concentrated despite the burning heat. Eventually he conjured life-giving leaves which knitted her skin back together and soothed the burns. She had no regained consciousness and would still be in pain when she did, but at least she wasn’t dying now. Kel supposed he should stay by her side till she recovered, even in this draining heat.


End file.
